The Elon College Weekly.
THE ELON GOLLEGE WEEKLY
Published every Tuesday during the College
year by
The Weekly Publishing Company.
W. P. LAWRENCE.
J. W. BARNEY.
A. C. HALL.
AFFIE GRIFFIN.
W. C. WICKER.
T. C. AMICK.
Editor.
Associate Editors.
Circulation Manager.
Business Manager.
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT.
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TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1910
Successful Men Who Have Had
Their Failures.
"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try
again," is an old saying and a wise one,
and there are times in the lives of all of
us when we want to bear it in mind and
act upon the advice which it communi
cates.
Most people are too easily discouraged.
They start out well, but they soon gel
tired. They have the best of mtentions
and they propose to theirijC'Ives a prograL.
which would carry them a long way up
the summit of achievement. Unfortu-
natelv, for their arrival at the goal which
they have set before them, the first failure
is enough to chill the ardor of their en
thusiasm and to turn the edge of their
original purpose.
What all of us need to remember is
'hat success is seldom attained without an
antecedent failure. People are apt to
think that the man who makes a great
success is either a favorite of fortune or
is endowed with faculties so much above
the average that his career furnishes no
example for the guidance or encourage
ment of others.
It is a mistake. The man who "gets
there" seldom, if ever, does so at a single
bound. He makes his failures so many
rungs in the ladder of his ascent. He
learns from experience. He climbs the
obstacles by which he is confronted in
stead of lying down before them and be
moaning his bad luck. He keeps on
trying and doesn’t allow himself to be
disheartened by a first or a second or
even a third defeat. He turns his failures
to good account. He just makes up his
mind that he won’t be beaten and in
spite of misfortune and adversity he goes
on pushing ahead. At last he reaches
the goal of his ambition and people say,
"What a lucky fellow ! " No, not lucky.
Just plucky and intelligent and deter
mined.
Everything comes to those who know
how to wait and most things are within
the reach of the man who knows ex
actly what he wants and has made up
his mind to get it. Think of young Dis
raeli when the House of Commons
hooted him down. "The time will come
when you will hear me," he cried, and so
it did, for that same Disraeli rose to be
the most powerful Prime Minister of his
generation, the favorite of his sovereign
and one of the most influential men in
Europe.
There is no royal road to success.
Plenty of pluck and lots of hard work are
what do the business, and every young
man starting out in life may feel very
sure that success will reward his efforts if
he will only stick everlastingly at it. Nor
need the man who has fallen behind in
the race feel disheartened. While there
is life there is hope. Few men have
risen so high or done so much as General
and President Grant, but at forty Grant s
life looked like a hopeless failure and he
seemed to have no future before him.
So if you are despondent and de
pressed, cheer up, take a fresh brace,
and be sure that if you will only do
your pait you will win out in the end.
The Hungiy Man.
The term "hungry man" calls to mind,
first of all, the physical man craving food
for the body. Such a craving indicates
a normal state of health, unless the hunger
65^ ^ni
" .ate and insatiable. The woia
"man" is used here, however, in its
larger, inclusive meaning, and the term
"hunger" also. It is pertinent, therefore,
to consider hunger for learning, for
scholarship, for literary and aesthetic
culture, for religious meetings, and for the
Great Spirit that makes and rules the
land and sea and the vast starry heavens.
It is, perhaps, an error for the young
mind and heart to suppose that absence
of hunger—intense, impelling hunger—
for food, mental or spiritual, or both, is
cause for* alarm. The record in Bible
history of the dead having been brought
back to life on various occasions, and the
general belief in the universal resurrection
indicates that one may die physically and
yet be alive mentally and spiritually. On
the other hand, it seems that one may be
alive physically and be dead mentally
and spiritually. The Great Book speaks
of men as being dead in trespasses and
in sin. And as the Christ spoke of
Lazarus’s death as a sleep, so this men
tal and spiritual death which we stumble
upon, now and then, may be a sleep of
the same kind, the spell of which is to
be broken only by the immediate action
of miraculous, Divine power, or by the
souncfing of Gabriel’s trumpet. Such
dead weight bodies of death that a col
lege community has to drag round with it
ought to be buried, and a college burial
of this kind is called "dismissal."
There is another class, however, in
whom there are slight signs of mental and
spiritual life. These, if skillfully treated
by faculty and literary societies, may be
brought to relish the whole college menu,
and actually have hunger for mental and
spiritual diet, it is the opportunity, and,
perhaps, the duty also of all members of
the college to aid in nursmg these feeble
ones into a healthy state.
Then there is another class still, who
have a normal hunger for this mind and
soul food. They are the real strength of
the college. They are those who would
strive for the mastery and succeed in
their striving by being temperate in all
things. They are neither crazed ath
letes, gluttonous book-eaters, nor spiritual
wine-bibbers.
Finally, there is the book-worm, and
religious fanatic class. They have an ab
normal, insatiable appetite for mental and
spiritual things. They should be dieted,
and it is the duty of the entire college to
see that the remedy is wisely and faith
fully administered.
Is Our School Declining?
The question was raised some time ago
as to the scholarship in Elon College. No
definite conclusions were drawn by the
writer, but we might conjecture from
what was said that he could believe
without so much sting of conscience that
the scholarship was declining. Now
don't let any one misunderstand scholar
ship as it is used here. We do not mean
that the curriculum is less strong; the re
quited work in Elon College is more
lhan has ever been and, besides, it is
as much md as thorough as the required
work of any college in the South. And
this is no off-hand statement; you only
have to compare catalogues to see that it
is true. It is a pity that colleges have
ever been measured by their money-
power and age rather than by their
merits. Elon had come into its own long
ago if these were not the standards of
institutions. But returning to the subject,
is our scholarship declining ?
This question has to do primarily with
the students of a college; and as the
term is comprehensive in its character
so it is in its meaning. To me, scholar
ship does not mean what A knows about
Math., or B about Latin, or C about
English, but the developed ability of A,
B and C to carry on an intelligent con
versation in either of these subjects. And
scholarship means more than this; it
means an all-round development that
makes a man feel at home in the world
of average thought; it is a general appre
ciation of literature ; Latin and English,
German and French and Greek; and
finally scholarship means a certain degree
of common sense.
Now you will think there are few
scholars anywhere—won t you, reader ?
Well, there are many, and we have lots
of them in Elon College. Of course
they have not learned all yet, and we
must distinguish between the scholarship
of a Freshman class and that of the
Junior class. But we might see how our
scholarship is standing by a study of the
Junior class.
Not long ago a class rated as Juniors
was asked to name three of Tennyson s
poems. Not but a few could name three
and a smaller nnmber could give the
thought contained in one of his poems.
The same test was made as to Long
fellow and Poe, with about the same re
sult. In the Bible classes not a few can
name a dozen sacred writers or give ten
familiar passages from the Scriptures.
Now, undoubtedly, such persons are
poor scholars. But we will not believe
that Elon graduates men that can not
show familiarity with the Bible, with the
other great literature, and with men in
general.
And while there may be a few in
all the college classes that are not up
I to what the standard scholarship ol tlieir
I respective classes should be, yet we
would hesitate to level the whole to a
few. 1 am inclined to think that if the
scholarship of any institution is declining
it is because the college students are de
clining in that inherent ability to do and
become. I do not think the scholarship
of Elon is declining any, but I would not
say it is advancing. We have no intel
lectual prodigies or young geniuses, but
we do have many energetic, moral men
and women, and the majority of these
maintain a high standard of scholarship.
A. C. H.
1890 1910
ELON COLLEGE
A young, vigorous College for both men and women. On Southern Railway, sixty-five miles
west of Raleigh, the State capital, and seventeen miles east of the thriving city of Greensboro.
The Location is Delightful; Water- Pure; Chmate Healthful.
Plant valued at $150,000. is modern in comfort and convenience. Steam heat, electric lights, wa
ter and sewerage connections with all buildings. Courses Lead to A. B., Ph. B. and
A* fVI* Desrees*
TcSChCrS* Course No tuition charges, course approved
by State and County Superintendents of Public Instruction.
EMMET L MOFFITT, A. M., LL D., President.
People’s House Furnishing Company'
HIGH POINT, N. C.
Retail House Furnishers and Jobbers
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